Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 23 May 2008:
Vol. 320. no. 5879, pp. 1081 - 1085
DOI: 10.1126/science.1157890
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Reports

Resource Partitioning and Sympatric Differentiation Among Closely Related Bacterioplankton

Dana E. Hunt,1* Lawrence A. David,2* Dirk Gevers,1,3,4 Sarah P. Preheim,1 Eric J. Alm,1,5{dagger} Martin F. Polz1{dagger}

Identifying ecologically differentiated populations within complex microbial communities remains challenging, yet is critical for interpreting the evolution and ecology of microbes in the wild. Here we describe spatial and temporal resource partitioning among Vibrionaceae strains coexisting in coastal bacterioplankton. A quantitative model (AdaptML) establishes the evolutionary history of ecological differentiation, thus revealing populations specific for seasons and life-styles (combinations of free-living, particle, or zooplankton associations). These ecological population boundaries frequently occur at deep phylogenetic levels (consistent with named species); however, recent and perhaps ongoing adaptive radiation is evident in Vibrio splendidus, which comprises numerous ecologically distinct populations at different levels of phylogenetic differentiation. Thus, environmental specialization may be an important correlate or even trigger of speciation among sympatric microbes.

1 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
2 Computational and Systems Biology Initiative, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
3 Laboratory of Microbiology, Ghent University, Gent 9000, Belgium.
4 Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Genomics Group, Ghent University, Gent 9000, Belgium.
5 Department of Biological Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA, and Broad Instilate of MIT and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

* These authors contributed equally to this work.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: ejalm{at}mit.edu (E.J.A.); mpolz{at}mit.edu (M.F.P.)

Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Eradicating Typological Thinking in Prokaryotic Systematics and Evolution.
W.F. Doolittle (2009)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol
   Abstract »    PDF »
primers4clades: a web server that uses phylogenetic trees to design lineage-specific PCR primers for metagenomic and diversity studies.
B. Contreras-Moreira, B. Sachman-Ruiz, I. Figueroa-Palacios, and P. Vinuesa (2009)
Nucleic Acids Res. 37, W95-W100
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Inferring evolutionarily significant units of bacterial diversity from broad environmental surveys of single-locus data.
T. G. Barraclough, M. Hughes, N. Ashford-Hodges, and T. Fujisawa (2009)
Biol Lett 5, 425-428
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
On the origin of prokaryotic species.
W. F. Doolittle and O. Zhaxybayeva (2009)
Genome Res. 19, 744-756
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
The Bacterial Species Challenge: Making Sense of Genetic and Ecological Diversity.
C. Fraser, E. J. Alm, M. F. Polz, B. G. Spratt, and W. P. Hanage (2009)
Science 323, 741-746
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ecological Specialization in a Spatially Structured Population of the Thermophilic Cyanobacterium Mastigocladus laminosus.
S. R. Miller, C. Williams, A. L. Strong, and D. Carvey (2009)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 75, 729-734
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)